Defensively - Who Surprised You Overall This Season?

[Ian]

Obviously there's plenty of doom and gloom after a tough night, but looking back which player on the defensive side of the ball was the most pleasant surprise for you this year?

 

[patsfaninpa]

Obviously there's plenty of doom and gloom after a tough night, but looking back which player on the defensive side of the ball was the most pleasant surprise for you this year?

1. I think Brandon Deaderick can be a stater going forward. And, a good one. Wasn't even sure he'd make the team.

2. Kyle Arrington can play in this league. Good 2nd or 3rd cb.

3. Brandon Spikes after coming back from his injury was a force. But, I thought he'd be a decent player even before the playoffs. Feel the same way about Chung.

 

[TriplecHamp]

Spikes is going to be a great player in this league, Kyle Arrington and Sterling Moore were forced into bigger rolls than they really should have been and they played well. Obviously I didn't think Carter and Mark Anderson would provide the type of passrush they did and the same goes for Rob Ninkovich coming off the edge. Not saying we can't improve on the position but they were better than I expected.

 

[the Patriot]

Gronkowski

I remember pondering during training camp, "Is this guy really gonna be that good?" I should have never had a shred of doubt.

 

[JackBauer]

Deaderick
Love
Moore
Spikes

 

[oldskool138]

Spikes 10char

 

[Patriot Missile]

Spikes for one. I'm not surprised by how good he is. I'm surprised about how fast he has cheated the learning curve. You could argue his big play potential and leadership are leaps and bounds better than any former Patriot if you compare them by tenure in the early years of their career. He certainly impressed me when he came back from injury for this run.

Sterling Moore has flaws but he shows signs of being a starting caliber Cb on this team. Again for someone with so little experience he made huge strides in his game.

Dan Connolly, for someone that took so much flack as a guard on this board he proved more than capable of handling the center position. So much more that we may have seen the end of Koppens stay here in New England.

McCourty's regression surprised me somewhat. I was fully expecting a stellar campaign from him. Regardless if he was moved to safety as a need before that happened he was getting beat quite a bit in man coverage. Zone is his pie, but unfortunately the way the game is changing we are going to need at least 2 guys back there that can stick on their guy like glue. Moore showed more promise in man than McCourty.

 

[Patdown93]

Brandon Deadrick. Sterling Moore. Devin McCourty's struggles.

 

[A.C Vegas]

I think Moore was one of the best late in the year he is right there Deaderick is getting better so is kyle love.

I think switching McCourty to safety will be a good move going forward he just plays better facing the ball

 

[condon84]

Love. The kid is one of the biggest reasons why Wilfork had the season he had. He took some attention off Wilfork.

 

[BlueThunder]

Have to agree...Love...Deaderick...Spikes....Moore ....

Good base of youngsters to build the D off......

 

[LetsGoPats36]

Spikes... He outperformed Mayo by a good margin in the playoffs.


Biggest let down is easily the corner position, which I thought finally looked competent before the start of the season. Seemed to be a nice mix of vets and youth.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Moore and Arrington for sure. They gave our secondary the reliable contributions we needed in addition to Chung/McCourty in order to have a shot at a title.

 

[jmt57]

When the season began I had high hopes for the defense. On the defensive line the Pats were going to have a rotation of some combination of Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Mike Wright, Marcus Stroud, Eric Moore, Kyle Love, Brandon Deaderick, Myron Pryor, Darryl Richard, Alex Silvestro, and then they added Albert Haynesworth, Andre Carter, Shaun Ellis and Mark Anderson.

At linebacker the Pats had what appeared to be a good group of improving young players: Jerod Mayo, Gary Guyton, Brandon Spikes, Jermaine Cunningham, Rob Ninkovich, Dane Fletcher and Jeff Tarpinian. The secondary appeared to be solid at both corner (Devin McCourty, Leigh Bodden, Kyle Arrington) and safety (Brandon Meriweather, James Sanders, Patrick Chung) plus rookie Ras-I Dowling.

It seemed to me that the defense had incredible depth, and all it would take would be for just a couple of these players to take the next step for them to become formidable.

Rather than specifically who surprised me, I would say what surprised me was that the defense was able to improve as much as they did over the course of the season when you consider the sheer number of how many of those players named above were lost, whether it be due to injury or lack of production, for either extended parts of the season or the entire season.

I think if I had to pick one, I might consider Vince Wilfork being able to not just be a three-down player, but being a productive three-down player. That's just unheard of for a player of his size.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Deaderick was one of my sleepers that draft, a rarity. Love and Moore who came out of nowhere. If these guys didn't hit their ceiling already that will be sweet. McCourty literally fell off a cliff. Hope he can be revived or retooled into a playmaker with a full off season. Anderson and Carter, hope they can both come back in form in 2012. Ninkovitch continues to show flashes. Hope he can yet become a consistent playmaker.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Most surprising by far is Moore who has been making more good plays than bad ones and Love who is dedicating his career to a fallen good friend.

 

[SpaceOdyssey]

Deaderick, Spikes, Moore, Arrington, Ninkovich all stepped up. The most surprising was Moore. He stepped up and came in to save the day numerous times.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Moore, my binky going into 2012. In the four games he played significant time at CB (Bills, Broncos, Ravens, Giants) he made plays in all of them, and that's without him starting. He's a playmaker, and you can't teach that.

His main weakness seems to be defending corner and streak routes. If he can improve that in camp, or we find a real cover safety to play near him, he should start next year.

 

[BelichickFan]

Moore, my binky going into 2012. In the four games he played significant time at CB (Bills, Broncos, Ravens, Giants) he made plays in all of them, and that's without him starting. He's a playmaker, and you can't teach that.

His main weakness seems to be defending corner and streak routes. If he can improve that in camp, or we find a real cover safety to play near him, he should start next year.

I know this is a stretch but Moore and Dowling as the CB, Arrington as the slot CB, McCourtey and Chung as the Safeties gives us a shot at a legit DB. Unfortunately Moore, Dowling, McCourtey are all high risk to be highly successful at those positions.

 

[patsinthesnow]

I know this is a stretch but Moore and Dowling as the CB, Arrington as the slot CB, McCourtey and Chung as the Safeties gives us a shot at a legit DB. Unfortunately Moore, Dowling, McCourtey are all high risk to be highly successful at those positions.

The backfield in 2012 has a chance to be the best we've fielded in years, but like you said its high risk.

We need a real FS badly, whether that's Mccourty, a FA, or a draftee. Moore/Dowling/Arrington could be one hell of a trio, but like you say, it depends on Moore not being a flash in the pan and Dowling coming back good.